From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 13 15:17:32 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E835316A4CE for ; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:17:32 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.24]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ABB2943D53 for ; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:17:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 1743 invoked from network); 13 Feb 2005 15:17:32 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail22.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 13 Feb 2005 15:17:32 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 238CD169; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:17:31 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: "Reid Linnemann" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20050211145816.8FA52A069F@csa.cs.okstate.edu> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 13 Feb 2005 10:17:30 -0500 In-Reply-To: <20050211145816.8FA52A069F@csa.cs.okstate.edu> Message-ID: <44650w4hh1.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 39 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: wireless-to-wired bridging X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:17:33 -0000 "Reid Linnemann" writes: > I'm bridging the devices so that the wired and wireless nets will appear > to be on the same physical network to eachother. Well, yes, that's what bridging means. Why do you want that? [Is it a Microsoft thing?] > I think I was really tired when I wrote my original email.. so let me > rewrite my hypothesis: > > I am suspicious that, since the wireless interface on the BSD machine > operates in AP mode, if a wireless client wants to send a packet to > another wireless client, it must be first sent to the wireless interface > of the BSD machine, which should theoretically redirect the packet to > the appropriate host on the wireless net. In the wired network, a switch > handles this case automagically on the datalink layer before any > messages can hit the rl1 interface of the BSD router. I've looked at > the bridge code, and it seems that unless a packet is multicast or > broadcast it will be copied to the other bridged interfaces but not > returned to the original caller. Since the packets being sent from one > wireless client to another are not broadcast, I think that the bridge > module may be dumping them into the black hole of the wired LAN, and > they are not being processed and pumped back out through the ath > interface. Is this a correct assumption? Are there ways I can overcome > this problem? On a quick look, I think you might be on the right track. The bridging code seems in a number of spots to be built specifically for Ethernet. I have always maintained that bridging unlike media was a hack bound for problems... You might have more success using dummynet for bridging rather than trying to fix things in the protocol stack. Good luck. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/